Baker's Bargain (Culpepper Cowboys Book 5) Read online

  Baker’s Bargain

  Culpepper Cowboy’s Book 5

  Kirsten Osbourne

  Unlimited Dreams

  Contents

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Also by Kirsten Osbourne

  Copyright © 2016 by Kirsten Osbourne

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Introduction

  Grace Quinlan is tired of living under her parents’ thumbs. She’s done volunteer work for years as a baker, and she feels it’s time to spread her wings and open her own bakery. She takes her cousins, who are equally skilled in baking, along with her twin, and they move to Culpepper, Wyoming, where her older sisters have all found love.

  When lawyer Marcus Wells meets Grace on her first day in Culpepper, he immediately knows she’s the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, despite her propensity for telling him awful lawyer jokes. After spending a few days together, getting to know one another, he immediately asks her to marry. Can she overcome her strict upbringing and find happiness with him? Or will her past haunt them both for the rest of their lives?

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  1

  Marcus Wells watched as his client walked out of his office, running his fingers through his hair. Another divorce. He was starting to wonder if people ever really had good marriages, but then he looked at his grandparents, and he knew they did. He wanted that for himself, but there were no single women left in town.

  Culpepper, Wyoming, had been victimized by the men’s underwear industry. One of the local ranchers had opened up his home for an underwear shoot, and all of the women in town had kindly volunteered their time. When a sudden spring snowstorm blew into town, the women had been stranded with the men. Many weddings had occurred once the roads were passable.

  He leaned back in his chair and frowned. The only single ladies who had come to town in years had been the Quinlan Quadruplets, and they’d been spoken for by the four Culpeppers since the day they arrived.

  Marcus frowned. He was not a fan of the Culpeppers. The youngest boy, Chris, had been in his class at school. The girls had always fawned over Chris and ignored Marcus, who even then had been very studious. Of course, Chris had been smart too, but in an outdoorsy cowboyish way.

  He stood and walked to the small window of his office which looked onto Main Street of Culpepper. He saw Joy Culpepper, formerly Quinlan, leave the grocery store and head to her car. The woman was beautiful and had said something to him about bringing her younger sister out to meet him from Kentucky. He thought for a moment, trying to remember the sister’s name. Oh right. Grace.

  If she was half as beautiful as her older sisters, then he was more than willing to give it a shot.

  He’d never really believed in arranged marriages, but more and more, they seemed like a really good idea to him. He wished he could just call someone and they would send him a bride, complete with dress and veil, ready to walk down the aisle.

  He frowned for a moment. Joy had said she would try. He wondered if she’d contacted her sister.

  Rushing out the door to his office, he ran across the street. “Do you need help putting your groceries in the truck, Joy?”

  Joy looked around and smiled. “Oh, hi, Marcus. I would adore some help. Morning sickness has set in, and I’m just not feeling like doing a whole lot, but for some reason, Kolby still insists on eating.”

  “What is it with those Culpeppers? They get all the prettiest girls, and then they expect them to cook and clean. They should hire maids for you and put you on pedestals.”

  Joy laughed. “I wasn’t raised to be put on a pedestal.”

  “Speaking of your raising…did you ever talk to your sister about me?”

  “Grace? I did, but it’s been a while. They’re getting ready to come out here. I can have her meet you for lunch one day.”

  Marcus nodded. “I’d like that a lot. In fact, get her to agree to marry me as soon as she arrives.”

  Joy shrugged. “She thought about contacting the matchmaker who set us up with the Culpepper men. I don’t think she’d be terribly opposed to meeting you and having a short engagement.”

  “Really?” He couldn’t help but wonder what the girl looked like if she’d be willing to date a stranger. Not that looks mattered too much to him, but he did want to make sure he was attracted to her. “Do you have a picture of her?”

  She pulled out her phone and flipped through the photos while he put her groceries onto the backseat of the truck for her. “Oh, here she is!” She held up her phone for him to see her sister Grace.

  He looked down at the petite looking blonde on the phone and nodded. “She’s pretty.” Beautiful was more like it. Absolutely stunning.

  “She is. And she’s very sweet, and more importantly, she can make the best cakes and cupcakes you’ve ever tasted. I’ve been trying to get her to move here and open a bakery.”

  He nodded slowly. “That would be a great idea. Right now we only have the small bakery in the grocery store, and they certainly can’t provide wedding cakes or anything like that.”

  “I’m going to call her again tonight and see if I can light a fire under her. I know she’s been talking to two of our cousins and her twin about coming with her.”

  “I can understand bringing her twin, but why the cousins?” Soon the entire population of Culpepper would be outnumbered by the Quinlans.

  “Well, our cousins, Patience and Felicity, make pies and cookies. The three of them are perfect business partners. Honor is a bit of a tomboy, much to Mom’s horror.”

  He grinned at that. “Why her horror?” Looking at the pretty girl in front of him, he couldn’t imagine her sister being a tomboy. There was no way.

  Joy frowned. “You don’t know our family, or you’d understand. We were raised to be ladylike at all times and to excel in housewifely tasks. Cooking, sewing, cleaning, and crafts. Honor hates all of that.” She tilted her head to one side. “Well, she loves woodworking. Is that a craft?”

  “I guess. But Grace doesn’t hate all of that?”

  “Nope, Grace is more like the rest of us. I’ll talk to her tonight. Want me to let you know what she says?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really like that.” Marcus smiled. “I know that Kolby has my number. He won’t mind if you call, will he?”

  “Nope. He won’t mind a bit.” She looked at the shopping cart and saw he’d put everything away. “Thanks for your help.”

  “No problem.” Marcus watched her get into the car and drive away, his mind on the girl in the photo she’d shown him. Hopefully she would be as sweet as she looked.

  Grace was in her room, sneaking her favorite show on Netflix when her sister, Joy, called her. She wasn’t allowed to watch the show, because there was too much kissing involved, but she was almost twenty-one for gosh sakes. How much could it hurt? She knew all about sex and kissing. Not that she’d ever done either.

  She pressed the pause button on Lazy Love before answering the phone. “Hey, Joy. How’s Wyoming?”

&
nbsp; “We need you here.” Joy’s voice was firm.

  “We’ve got lots of stuff on its way there. We’ve already started packing boxes and shipping them. Are you sure your mother-in-law can handle four of us?”

  “Yes! She took all four of us in when we got there, and now we’re all married off and out of her house. Time for you to invade.”

  “Honor loves the idea of going out there and playing cowgirl, and Patience and Felicity want to open the bakery. They’re shipping stuff too. Better start watching for it.” Grace paused, looking at her favorite heroine, Jo, frozen on the screen of her iPad. “We’re planning on leaving on Friday. Should be there around noonish on Sunday.”

  “Oh, I’m so excited! I talked to Linda, and she said you guys could use the second bunkhouse for the bakery, because it has a commercial kitchen. Karlan has pulled some strings to get it inspected so you’ll be ready to be up and running as soon as you get here.”

  “Sounds good to me. What about that lawyer you mentioned? Is he still interested in meeting me?” Grace wasn’t sure how she felt about getting involved with a man as soon as she was out from under her father’s roof, but Marcus sounded nice.

  “Yes! I talked to him just today. He asked about you, hoping you’d be coming. Want me to invite you both to dinner on Monday?”

  Grace thought about it for a moment. “No, I want to get the bakery set up first. As soon as that’s done, I’ll meet him happily.”

  “Sounds good to me! I’m so happy you’re coming!”

  “Me too!” Grace ended the call and pushed the play button on her iPad, sighing contentedly. Who wouldn’t be happy to watch Dylan kiss Jo? The couple had a chemistry that just made her heart beat faster.

  As she watched the scene she’d seen at least fifteen times before, she thought about what they still had to do to get out of the house. Grace had talked to her parents about going to stay with the sisters, and her mother had reluctantly agreed. She didn’t realize they weren’t coming back, but that was better than just running off as her older quadruplet sisters had done. She and Honor were at least admitting what they were doing. Well, as much as they could without their parents going ballistic.

  She zoned out watching her show for a while, and then switched to watching some of the interviews of the stars on YouTube. She found one from a couple of months before where the two main stars appeared on the Night show right after marrying in real life.

  She’d seen it before, but she still laughed and blushed when Valerie was asked very personal questions and ended up kissing her new husband, Jesse Savoy. It was too bad her sisters hadn’t moved to Texas, instead of Wyoming. She’d have loved to casually drive by the set and see if she could catch a glimpse of Valerie and Jesse.

  She fell asleep with a smile on her face, imagining having that kind of chemistry with a man. Someday it would happen for her. It had to.

  The drive to Wyoming was long and tedious. They took the car Grace and Honor’s father had purchased for them when they’d begun college. All of Grace’s baking pans and specialty equipment had been shipped ahead.

  As they crossed the state line into Wyoming on Sunday morning, Grace found herself becoming more and more nervous. Patience and Felicity sat in the back seat singing show tunes the whole way. It made Grace more than a little crazy, but their voices weren’t horrible. It was just being locked up in a car for so long that was getting to her.

  When they started their fifth rendition of “Moses Supposes His Toeses are Roses” from Singing in the Rain, she thought about screaming, but instead she turned to Honor. “Are you excited to be going to the ranch? I’m sure the brothers will let you help out.”

  Honor shrugged. “I’m more excited to finally be able ride a horse.”

  “I still don’t understand why Mom and Dad didn’t want you taking horseback riding lessons when we were kids.” Grace knew Honor had begged and begged for the privilege, but her sister had never been allowed.

  “Daddy would have been fine with it if I’d been willing to ride sidesaddle, but he said that riding astride wasn’t something one of his daughters was going to do on his watch.”

  “That’s stupid.” Grace shook her head. “Why do they have such antiquated beliefs?”

  “I have no idea.” Honor rolled her eyes, turning left on a highway at the GPS system’s prompting. “How much longer does it say?”

  Grace looked at the screen. “Five minutes.”

  Patience and Felicity quit singing at her words. “Five minutes?” Felicity asked.

  Patience let out a squeal. “In five minutes, we can get out of this car and wander around. I can’t wait to see the quads!”

  Grace frowned. She knew everyone had always found it easier to refer to her older sisters as the quads and her and Honor as the twins, but she found it annoying. They weren’t who they were because they happened to have been part of multiple births. They were people in their own right.

  As soon as Honor parked the car, Grace got out, stretching. “This place is huge.”

  Honor got out beside her, nodding emphatically. “I want to go see the stables.” She took off in the direction of a building that looked like a stable, ignoring her sister and cousins.

  “Honor, where are you going?” Grace yelled after her twin. “We’re supposed to meet the Culpeppers!”

  Grace walked toward the house, tripping over her own two feet as she did all the time. She blamed her name. Her parents hadn’t realized that giving her a name like Grace was just asking for her to be clumsy. Just like Chastity did everything she could to live down to her name, Grace found herself living down to her own—without intending to.

  A woman who appeared to be in her late forties came out of the house, wearing a pair of jeans and a button-up shirt. “Hello!” she called out. “Are you Grace?”

  Grace nodded, walking toward Linda Culpepper, their hostess. “Thank you for inviting us to stay for a while.”

  Linda enfolded Grace in a hug. “We’re just happy you’re all willing to come and help us out of our jam.”

  “Family helps family. Joy said you were able to find a place for us to set up a bakery?” Grace was so excited to be able to use her skills. Back in Kentucky, she’d frequently made cakes and cupcakes for friends and family for birthdays and weddings, but she’d never been able to start a business using them, because their parents didn’t think girls should work.

  “Yes, we do. We have a second bunkhouse that hasn’t been used in about ten years, but the kitchen is a commercial kitchen. My father-in-law sold off part of the ranch ten years ago, so we didn’t need as many men to run it. That’s about the time the boys were finishing up their schooling, and now it’s a family business only, if you don’t count Angus.”

  “Angus works for you, right?” Grace asked, not having heard the name from her sisters.

  “He’s our only employee. He’s a good man.” Linda led the three women into the house. “Who’s missing? I thought I was getting four young ladies.”

  “Honor went to check out the horses,” Grace responded. “She’s always been horse crazy.”

  “Oh, so she rides?”

  Grace shook her head. “Not yet. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, though.”

  Linda didn’t ask any questions, obviously used to the crazy way the Quinlan girls had been raised. “Come on in. You’ll each have your own room here in what we call the big house. I’m going to text your sisters to let them know you got here a little earlier than expected.”

  “That would be great. Thank you.” She quickly introduced her cousins, and they made their way down the hall, with Linda assigning a room to each of them. “I’m going to throw some lunch together. You girls come out when you’re ready. Tomorrow morning, I’ll show you the bakery.”

  Grace took the first room to the right, sighing in relief once she was inside. It had a private bathroom, which thrilled her to no end. She quickly stripped and showered, not wanting to see her sisters when she was so unkempt afte
r a two-month absence. Of the six Quinlan sisters, Grace was known to be the most obsessed with her appearance.

  She dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, before walking out into her bedroom. There was a sharp knock on her door, and then it was thrown open. “Joy!”

  Grace ran into her sister’s arms. For some reason, she’d always felt closer to Joy than she had any of the others, except Honor, of course.

  Joy grabbed her in a bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

  “How are you feeling? How’s my little niece or nephew?”

  Joy smiled. “Morning sickness is going to be the death of me. I can’t believe I have six more weeks of this to look forward to.”

  Grace frowned. “You’re not due in six weeks.”

  “No, but the doctor said it won’t be this bad after the first trimester, and that’s another six weeks.”

  “Well, I’m excited about the baby.” Grace peered at her sister’s stomach, trying to see if she was showing at all, but she couldn’t see anything.

  “No, I’m not showing yet,” Joy said with a frown. “Of course, as a newlywed, I don’t want to be huge, but I do want this baby with everything in me.”

  “I can’t believe you and Faith both got pregnant so quick!”

  “Oh, you’ll understand once you meet our husbands. These Culpepper men are—well, I heard Dr. Lachele tell Linda that her boys are all ‘sex on a stick.’ And they are.”

  Grace grinned at that. “I’m sorry Dr. Lachele isn’t here so we could meet her.” She’d wanted to meet the older woman since she’d heard about Dr. Lachele’s first meeting with her older sisters a few months before.

  Joy shrugged. “Oh, she visits regularly. You’ll see her.”

  “Why? Does she do that with all the couples she matches?”

  “I don’t think so, but she and Linda have become really close.” Joy grabbed Grace’s arm and pulled her from the room. “We need to go help with lunch. Linda is left with the burden of cooking for the entire horde too often.”